After two years (1988-1990) of intense negotiations with the authorities of the City of Dorval, Dorval Airport and Transport Canada (Federal Government), on June 1st, 1990 we finally signed a lease to rent a large piece of land on the grounds of the Montreal International Airport in Dorval. At that time, our company carried the name “Centre Canin Dorval Inc./Dorval Canine Centre Inc.”.
A substantial loan, initially promised by a Charter Bank (before the signature of our lease), was withdrawn from their credit office (after the signature of our lease) because of our plan to construct our buildings on a leased land. So, here we were situated in the middle of an open field at the airport with no water, no sewer, no electricity, no natural gas, no telephone line and… and no financial assistance to built our kennel.
In reality, we had nothing… just a grand dream and the determination to make it happen.
The first year, we started the construction of our Phase I, wich included a tiny reception area, a small dog boarding area, a small grooming area and the employee house. Two small mobile houses were carried on a flat bed truck and placed on a large empty field at 175 Jenkins ave, in Dorval.
Phase II was conceived and built between 1992 and 1996. It included the construction on the west building containing our training Hall (now our Geriatric Section), one small office and an apartment for the owner.
During this period we started to offer cat boarding and cat grooming. In 1996 our name was modified and re-baptized as Manoir Kanisha (‘Kani’ = dog, ‘sha’ = cat, in French). With the assistance of our first accountant, we structured our Board of Directors and we finally obtained a Small Business Loan (SBL) from the Royal Bank of Canada. This loan was 90% guaranteed by the Federal Government.
Between 1997 and 2000, we built our Phase III, the North building, comprising a large two-storeys kennel. This allowed us to expand our dog boarding spaces which were essential during peak periods. We also built our garage to hold all our seasonal equipment.
Finally in 2004, thanks to the assistance of the BDF (Federal Development Bank) we obtained a significant loan to complete our Phase IV. This last phase allowed us to construct the structure of our central building which contain our` reception area, dog condos, cat condos, employee’s kitchen, insolated cat playroom, a large interior dog playground area (90′ x 90′), grooming area, employees locker room and our three workshops. This new construction allowed us to link together all the previous buildings constructed between 1990 and 2004.
In 2006, a private investor lent us a substantial amount to complete the interior of all our buildings.
In 2011, we reconstructed all the outside decks which insure proper drainage and serve as floor for our exterior dog enclosures.
The founder, Nicole MacDuff, launched her project entirely alone in 1988. The first lease with Transport Canada was signed in 1990. Twenty five years later (2015) the Manoir Kanisha employs, 16 people year round, rising to 20 persons during peak seasons.
